Back in the early 1990s, filmmaker Scott Frank began writing his debut novel “Shaker,” which is now available in paperback. It’s the story of an unassuming hitman, an embarrassing mayor, a sharp cop with a checkered past, a young street gang, and an unrelenting earthquake. They all affect each other in a Los Angeles-set story, unmistakably from the director of The Lookout and A Walk Among the Tombstones and the writer behind two beloved Elmore Leonard film adaptations, Get Shorty and Out of Sight.

Shaker‘s charactersare on a comically dark, dramatic, and violent journey that concludes at a famous location that calls to mind some other great thrillers from the ’90s. In addition to discussing Logan, which Frank co-wrote, he also told us about the experience of completing Shaker years after he first imagined the story’s tragic, seemingly childlike hitman, Roy Cooper.